In this lesson Andy and Thomas take us through a variety of tips to help you achieve your goals this year! We cover barre chords, practice routines and have a lot of fun jamming!
Barre Chords: Tips & Tricks
We know that so many of you struggle with barre chords when you are trying to bridge the gap between beginner and intermediate, so Thomas and Andy take you through some great tips to help you with that. Here are the main tips:
>> Keep your elbow into your side (chord playing hand)
>> Stay on the side of your first finger with a slight curve to the first finger
>> Stay right on the tips of fingers 2, 3 and 4
>> Train fingers 2, 3 and 4 by playing easy open chords such as E major and A major with fingers 2, 3 and 4 rather than 1, 2 and 3! (as an exercises)
Ideal Practice: Try This Routine
Most guitarists don't create any kind of practice plan to follow. Therefore, practice becomes repetitive, dull and leads to little progression. See our guidelines of a great general practice routine for both beginners and intermediate players below!
Beginners: Practice Routine
Time
20 minutes, four or five days a week
What To Cover
Open chords (E, A, D, G, C, Em, Am, Dm etc)
Simple strumming patterns
Simple single note riffs and scales (E minor pentatonic, C major scale
Simple songs using these core elements
Try This Course...
If you want to make sure quick progress with your guitar playing, try our beginners specific guitar gym sessions here: Beginners Guitar Gym.
Intermediates: Practice Routine
Time
30 minute to 1 hour, four or five days a week
What To Cover
Barre chords
Advanced open chords (A/Dsus2 and 4, maj7 chords, dominant 7 chords etc)
Major scale position 1, major and minor pentatonic position 1 + extensions
More advanced players should work towards learning these scales in all 5 positions, particularly the pentatonic shapes (both minor and major!)
16th strumming, syncopated rhythms and accents
Learn basic music theory focusing on the chords in the 5 common guitar keys (diatonic chords aka Nashville number system) The five common guitar keys in order are C, G, D, A and E (which goes in order of the amount of sharps and flats each key has!)
As Thomas talks about during the show, learning the 5 shapes of the pentatonic well is absolutely crucial. Below we have written out the 5 pentatonic shapes, plus the super cool guitar gym exercise Thomas used in the video.
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In today's episode, Andy and Thomas take a look at rock riffs! How are they written, what makes a great riff. We take 3 awesome rock riffs to analyse, and even try to learn our own!